The Secret Lives of Heroes

Factions

Factions are philosophically based power groups in Pendros which adhere to a certain belief with an intensity seen only in religious zealots; many have come to call them philosophers with clubs. While the Vampire Lord of Pendros (currently Nikos) is considered the ultimate ruler of the metropolis, now that the traditional forms of government have collapsed, the Factions perform virtually all the actual administrative and practical functions of the city. They are the ones the people look to for authority; Nikos only gives edicts or appears personally under rare circumstances. Each of the Factions is based around one particular belief system; many of the Factions’ beliefs make them enemies where their other goals and actions might have made them allies.

Factions are led by a Factol. Other high-ranking faction members are called Factors, and mid-level faction members are called Factotums. The lowest-ranking members are called Namers because many of them have only a tenuous faith in their faction’s philosophy and are thus members in name only.

Characters that have an Allegiance to a Faction gain something called a Faction bonus to certain kinds of rolls and checks. This bonus is determined by the Importance of the Allegiance and your effective character level (ECL), not just your highest class level. Your Faction bonus can’t be added to a single die roll or other number more than once. Just like standard Allegiance bonuses, the character gains their Faction bonus on Charisma-based skill checks when dealing with someone of the same allegiance-as long as the character has had some interaction with the other character to discover the connections and bring the bonus into play. If someone tries to make a Social Maneuver check against you in regards to your Faction, you gain your Faction bonus to defend yourself. Faction bonuses replace Allegiance bonuses, and the two do not stack. Unless otherwise stated, Faction bonuses cannot be added to attacks (unless related to the Aid Another action) or damage rolls, or static numbers like Defense and CMD.

Additionally, Factions confer special abilities to characters at certain levels, as long as they maintain an Allegiance to their Faction and have a Relationship score with the Faction equal to or greater than their current level. A character with Allegiances to multiple Factions (something that is discouraged and looked down upon in the setting) only gains the abilities for their Most Important Allegiance.